No. 7 University of Mount Olive used a five goal third quarter to spark a comeback victory against No. 19 Pfeiffer University Tuesday night in Conference Carolinas men's lacrosse in Misenheimer, N.C. Mount Olive trailed by four goals at the half before the third quarter gave the Trojans their first lead of the game.
Mount Olive (8-2 Overall, 2-0 Conference Carolinas) was slow out of the gates as the Trojans allowed Pfeiffer (5-4, 1-1) to take the lead just over two minutes into the first quarter. Cameron LaPorta connected for the Falcons first goal and gave Pfeiffer the 1-0 lead. Kyle Enkelmann scored the next two goals and pushed the Falcon lead to three with 2:10 left in the quarter. Pfeiffer put on more goal on the board before the quarter ended to led by four.
The second quarter saw much of the same as Pfeiffer scored two straight goals the second coming off a man-up situation with 6:13. Matt Shields broke the Trojan scoring drought off a pass from Davyd Powell with 1:06 left before halftime. Jesse Mitchell scored one minute later as he found an open lane and made it a four goal cushion for Pfeiffer 6-2.
The Trojans came roaring out of halftime and picked up a goal with 13:09 left as Eddie Henderickson beat the Falcons keeper and the comeback was on for Mount Olive. Spencer Gelinas fired in a shot off a quick pass from Stephen Bowlan and Mount Olive trailed by two.
Less than two minutes later Thatcher Clark scored with 10:31 and was followed by Brett Kingston at the 8:11 mark to tie the game at six. Following a pushing penalty against the Falcons, Mount Olive was set up for a power play opportunity. The Trojans, 26 seconds into the power play found a hole in the Pfeiffer defense and Nico Shewey finished off the Mount Olive comeback and gave the Trojans the 7-6 lead with 6:29 left in the third.
Pfeiffer won the following faceoff and converted quickly to tie the game at seven with 6:02. Neither team scored for the remainder of the quarter and the game stayed tied heading into the fourth.
The Falcons broke through first in the fourth as Derek Thomas scored with 9:30 left to give Pfeiffer the 8-7 lead. Mount Olive however, answered back with 6:59 as Kingston scored off an assist from Matt Shields to tie the game again.
Kingston scored the go ahead goal with 3:05 left as a saved shot attempt by the Pfeiffer keeper landed into the stick of Austin Whitlow, who flipped to Kingston for the goal. After back-to-back shot attempts by the Falcons that sailed high Mount Olive was able clear the ball and set up their offense. The final goal came off the stick of Mitchell with 52 seconds left in the game and Mount Olive sealed the win.
Kingston led the Trojans with three goals and added a caused turnover and a groundball. Ryan Morris led the defense with three caused turnovers and five groundballs. In goal Ross Bowman (8-2) recorded six saves on 24 shots, 14 on goal, and also had one ground ball.
Mount Olive will travel to play No. 15 Belmont Abbey, April 2 in Belmont, N.C.